Belgian researchers, particularly research team from the University of Liege led by Michael Gillon, has said it has discovered three planets orbiting around a nearby dwarf star known as Trappist 1.
Mr. Gillon said on Monday in Brussels that the discovery was the outcome of a research project the team undertook five years ago.
The Belgian scientists disclosed that as the size and temperatures of the three “red worlds” were comparable to Earth and other planets from the solar system, it could be the best place to find life.
Mr. Gillon, an associate researcher at the University of Liege, said the team was looking for planets that could have on their surfaces the conditions like on earth and may host life.
He said the study showed that two of the researched planets had orbital periods of about 1.5 days and 2.4 days, respectively, while the orbiting time of the third one is around 10 days.
Mr. Gillon said the scientists were already preparing the next phase, which he noted would be the most interesting.
“It is the James Webb space telescope, which is a very big space telescope that will be launching in 2018. So, two years from now and with this telescope we will be able to study atmosphere. Currently, we are trying to measure the masses of the planet,” he said.
The researcher said his team cooperated with international researchers from the U.S. and Britain, adding that the international researchers mainly worked through the internet system connected to one of the prototype telescope based in Chile.
He said to detect potentially habitable planets, researchers use a so-called transit method, adding that they observed specific stars and tried to catch the planet that passed in front of them.
“We made this programme on our small robotic telescope Trappist, which is in Chile as a prototype for our more ambitious project, called `Speculoos’.
“It will use bigger telescopes with more sensitive instruments to explore more,” he said.
With the current Trappist telescope, Mr. Gillon said scientists were able to observe only 60 targets, and with Speculoos the scope would be wider, up to 500 objects.
SOURCE: http://www.bookspen.com/2016/05/30/discovery-3-new-earth-like-planets-can-sustain-life/